Why are there so many Amityville sequels??

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

So I just came across this:

Yeah, it looks like a cheesy zombie action film but it seems to be part of the strange Amityville franchise!

How is this possible:

Is the Amityville story public domain or something? And even so... why would they make so many films about this in particular? lol at one point it's complete non-sense. I don't get it.

HStallion · Jan 11, 2022

It's a REALLY haunted house

OneThirtyEight · Jan 11, 2022

Those rain effects are on par with GTA Definitive Trilogy

Rassilon · Jan 11, 2022

those ghosts must get excellent residual cheques

Tfritz · Jan 11, 2022

the latest run of direct to streaming seem to be following the lifetime/hallmark christmas movie template of releasing movies on a weekly basis

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

OneThirtyEight said:
Those rain effects are on par with GTA Definitive Trilogy

Spot on lmao

Menome · Jan 11, 2022

Jesus, I thought you were going to list around eight or nine of them. That is...a lot. Especially as the first one isn't even all that supernatural if I remember correctly?

Tfritz · Jan 11, 2022

wait Amityville Vibrator??

molnizzle · Jan 11, 2022

I've never met anyone who watches these. I don't understand how they they keep getting made.

TaySan · Jan 11, 2022

Tfritz said:
wait Amityville Vibrator??

omg I just noticed that too.

PanzerKraken · Jan 11, 2022

They aren't sequels, majority of them are just random movies that slap the word Amityville on them.

It's kinda dumb to list them all on the wiki like that, they are not related or even by same company, publishers, anything.

Zeno · Jan 11, 2022

molnizzle said:
I've never met anyone who watches these. I don't understand how they they keep getting made.

I feel there are plenty of niche series I don't know about that keep going by just simply knowing how to budget for their niche audience.

PanzerKraken said:
They aren't sequels, majority of them are just random movies that slap the word Amityville on them.

It's kinda dumb to list them all on the wiki like that, they are not related or even by same company, publishers, anything.

Oh. Nvm. That would also work.

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

Menome said:
Jesus, I thought you were going to list around eight or nine of them. That is...a lot. Especially as the first one isn't even all that supernatural if I remember correctly?

The first one is like a typical haunted house movie. I think it's good and intriguing, and very tame in general.

Z-Beat · Jan 11, 2022

Even that Wikipedia list is missing some, like this one

Convasse · Jan 11, 2022

Tfritz said:
wait Amityville Vibrator??

My eyes went to that immediately.
I mean, are people being drilled to death by a horny ghost?
Is the haunted house a horny jail perverted spirits are banished too?
I have so many additional questions.

Dodongo · Jan 11, 2022

I'm the weirdo who watches every shitty horror sequel, and even I haven't seen any of these.

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

PanzerKraken said:
They aren't sequels, majority of them are just random movies that slap the word Amityville on them.

It's kinda dumb to list them all on the wiki like that, they are not related or even by same company, publishers, anything.

But isn't a studio holding some form of copyright about this? If you made a movie titled "A Bad Dream on Elm Street" I guess someone would give you a call to change it.
This is like they're ripping off an established brand.

Fuzzy · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
So I just came across this:

Yeah, it looks like a cheesy zombie action film but it seems to be part of the strange Amityville franchise!

How is this possible:

Is the Amityville story public domain or something? And even so... why would they make so many films about this in particular? lol at one point it's complete non-sense. I don't get it.

I bet it's just that Amityville, New York is a real place so these movies use the name for free "brand recognition" without infringing on the original book or movie as long as they don't use the full Amityville Horror name.

Deleted member 9241 · Jan 11, 2022

I marathoned all of them that were available at the time 2 years ago.

Here is my post from the 31 Days of Horror thread from Sept 28, 2020. I bolded the part I remembered the most. I think that documentary was pretty awesome TBH.

"Last week I did an Amityville movie watch. Geez there are a lot of them. I could write a few paragraphs on each one, but that is always my hang up when doing the format of this thread... I watch so many movies that it would take me hours to write up my feelings on each one.

Amityville Horror
Amityville 2: The Possession
Amityville 3-D
Amityville 4 The Evil Escapes
Amityville It's About Time
Amityville A New Generation
Amityville Dollhouse
Amityville Horror Remake (with Ryan Reynolds)
Amityville Haunting
Amityville Asylum
Amityville Death House
Amityville Playhouse
Amityville No Escape
Amityville Vanishing Point
Amityville Legacy
Amityville Terror
Amityville The Awakening
Amityville Murders
Amityville Curse
Amityville Exorcism
Amityville Island
Amityville Prison (Escape the Night alt title)
Amityville Mt Misery Road
Amityville Evil Never Dies
Amityville The Final Chapter (Sickle alt title)
Amityville Harvest

And a handful of documentaries:
The Real Amityville Horror
The True Story: The Amityville Horror
The Real Story: The Amityville Horror
Amityville; Horror or Hoax
Amityville The Haunting
Amityville Documentaire (The only one I did not watch, french film on Youtube with no subtitles)
My Amityville Horror - See below!

I watched all those and honestly, the documentaries were easily the best movies, particularly the one called My Amityville Horror (2012). This movie is an interview with Daniel Lutz, the boy from the book who was only 10yrs old during the 28 day ordeal in the Amityville home. He is an honest, real, and convincing historian. He is also a fucking asshole with a chip on his shoulder who acts like he could explode in a violent rage at any given moment. The movie was fascinating. I couldn't take my eyes of of it. Daniel is very obviously a traumatized and emotionally unstable man. His accounts of things are hair raising and 100% true, at least to him. There is a point when the documentary goes off the fucking rails when they visit the home of Lorraine Warren. You would know her as one half of the famous paranormal investigator team of Ed and Lorraine Warren. They have been played on screen by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farminga in movies like The Conjuring, Annabelle, Nun (were they in Nun?). Anyway, Daniel very obviously has an immense amount of respect for this women: almost a reverence. At one point she breaks out a piece of the true cross (lol) and Daniel kisses it and I think people started crying? It was fucking weird as shit though. It is obvious that Ed & Lorraine (and Daniel too) were hardcore catholics. Like, crazy catholics. The movie shed more light to me, sometimes unintentional, than the book or all the above movies ever have. It was a great documentary and I highly suggest it."

AHA-Lambda · Jan 11, 2022

Woah, 6 of them in the space of a year??

PanzerKraken · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
But isn't a studio holding some form of copyright about this? If you made a movie titled "A Bad Dream on Elm Street" I guess someone would give you a call to change it.
This is like they're ripping off an established brand.

Amityville Horror would be the brand. Amityville being a place, they can use the name freely, and them not really referencing the actual original movie they can get away with alot. Referencing the real life murders that took place is also not under copyright if they do that. The whole haunting claims, the murders, "real events", easy to work around

Wrexis · Jan 11, 2022

I wonder if it's a rights thing - use it or lose it, like Sony + Spider-man.

I know the Conjuring movies could not use the word Amityville or show the outside of the house.

DirtyLarry · Jan 11, 2022

I would imagine it is a super inexpensive franchise to license, so whenever a studio has a shit horror movie they know is going to tank, they throw a few extra bucks at getting the rights to the name to hopefully get a few more eyes on their terrible movie.

Or something like that

Lord Fanny · Jan 11, 2022

Z-Beat said:
Even that Wikipedia list is missing some, like this one

I have to see this

The Albatross · Jan 11, 2022

Holy shit, entering this thread I Thought there were like 5 Amityville movies. First 2 which are good, then 3 and 4 which are bad but make sense, then the remake.

So I was all prepared to be like "well the first two were pretty good movies and the real life story is horrific so it makes sense why there'd be 5 or 6......" and then I see like 30 movies, hahaha/.

Dot-N-Run · Jan 11, 2022

There's been ten movies in this franchise since the start of the pandemic, what a world.

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

Z-Beat said:
Even that Wikipedia list is missing some, like this one

omg

Fuzzy said:
I bet it's just that Amityville, New York is a real place so these movies use the name for free "brand recognition" without infringing on the original book or movie as long as they don't use the full Amityville Horror name.

Makes sense. But I think it's a thin line, because if you make a ghost movie and call it Amityville, in a way you're alluding to the established brand. I guess?

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

Creature Feature said:
I marathoned all of them that were available at the time 2 years ago.

That must be quite an experience. Do they hold up well for a while after the first two?

The documentary you mention sounds interesting and eccentric, I'll put in on my watchlist.

PanzerKraken · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
Makes sense. But I think it's a thin line, because if you make a ghost movie and call it Amityville, in a way you're alluding to the established brand. I guess?

They have almost nothing to do with the original plot or story at all, in many cases these films have zero to do with anything and just have the name Amityville in the title

Odesu · Jan 11, 2022

Fuzzy said:
I bet it's just that Amityville, New York is a real place so these movies use the name for free "brand recognition" without infringing on the original book or movie as long as they don't use the full Amityville Horror name.

Yeah I think this is it. I don't think this is an actual franchise but a free, recognizable name many movies just use to get some free publicity?

BorganXI · Jan 11, 2022

..... Vibrator ??

Lol....

Also, 23 movies in 9 years...

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

PanzerKraken said:
They have almost nothing to do with the original plot or story at all, in many cases these films have zero to do with anything and just have the name Amityville in the title

This explains a lot!

It reminds me of the "Zombi" sequels to Dawn of the Dead from the 80s. I think they were renamed "Zombie Flesh Eaters" but in Italy they were simply called Zombi 2, 3, 4, etc. after the original Dawn of the Dead was titled Zombi. They have nothing to do with Romero's movie, but they still cling to the brand.

maigret · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
But isn't a studio holding some form of copyright about this? If you made a movie titled "A Bad Dream on Elm Street" I guess someone would give you a call to change it.
This is like they're ripping off an established brand.

The published novel is the IP, but movies are free to use the Amityville title because it refers to actual murders that happened.

Deleted member 9241 · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
That must be quite an experience. Do they hold up well for a while after the first two?

The documentary you mention sounds interesting and eccentric, I'll put in on my watchlist.

No, they are pretty much all universally terrible. I have a special distain for the 2005 remake with Ryan Reynolds because they change the story so much. Most of the others have little or nothing to do with the original story or it is only mentioned in passing. The vast majority are the exact low budget fodder as you would expect.

What kills me is that the book is a genuinely frightening page turner. How hard is it to just make the book into a movie? That same frustration carries over to other adaptations for me, namely War of the Worlds. For some reason everyone feels the need to put their own spin on things and usually omit the best/most interesting things that make the books so compelling.

But man, My Amityville Horror still sticks with me. It is one of the most unusual documentaries I have ever seen. It was obvious that Danny Lutz 100% did not want to be there. He had verbal sparring with the people on set during the interviews. The dude was not in a good mental or emotional state during filming. If I had to guess, I think he did it purely for the money and hated himself for the fact.

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

Convasse said:
My eyes went to that immediately.
I mean, are people being drilled to death by a horny ghost?
Is the haunted house a horny jail perverted spirits are banished too?
I have so many additional questions.

There are some pictures and it looks (expectedly) extremely low budget

Z-Beat · Jan 11, 2022

To answer your question though, OP: there are so many because apparently the public domain status of Amityville is tricky so people could get away with whatever. Kinda like how there are so many "living dead" or "of the dead" films that have nothing to do with the Romero ones. It entered public domain for a while and people just lost their shit.

Some companies have to keep shitting out sequels to films in order to retain the rights to the property, like Hellraiser and probably Leprechaun

Tuorom · Jan 11, 2022

Convasse said:
My eyes went to that immediately.
I mean, are people being drilled to death by a horny ghost?
Is the haunted house a horny jail perverted spirits are banished too?
I have so many additional questions.

I blame that scene in Scary Movie...2(?) where Tori Spelling gets railed by a ghost

Fisty · Jan 11, 2022

Rifftrax just did Amityville 4, which is some beautiful 90s made-for-TV movie crap.

The evil Amityville ghost gets forced into a standing lamp in the house, and is then sold at auction and shipped to California where it causes a lot of really stupid shit to happen like a plumber getting a face full of sewage and presumably dying under the house and no one notices.

Fushichou187 · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
There are some pictures and it looks (expectedly) extremely low budget

WELP. Adding that to my queue now.

inner-G · Jan 11, 2022

Amityville: It's about time was surprisingly good

David Addison · Jan 11, 2022

Creature Feature said:
What kills me is that the book is a genuinely frightening page turner.

I hope this is the most ridiculous thing I read today. It's written at a fifth grade reading level, fer crissakes!

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

Z-Beat said:
To answer your question though, OP: there are so many because apparently the public domain status of Amityville is tricky so people could get away with whatever. Kinda like how there are so many "living dead" or "of the dead" films that have nothing to do with the Romero ones. It entered public domain for a while and people just lost their shit.

Some companies have to keep shitting out sequels to films in order to retain the rights to the property, like Hellraiser and probably Leprechaun

Hellraiser went back to Barker, I think.

Now that you mention Romero, there's also this:

lol

Noisepurge · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
This explains a lot!

It reminds me of the "Zombi" sequels to Dawn of the Dead from the 80s. I think they were renamed "Zombie Flesh Eaters" but in Italy they were simply called Zombi 2, 3, 4, etc. after the original Dawn of the Dead was titled Zombi. They have nothing to do with Romero's movie, but they still cling to the brand.

Same as the Evil Dead films in italy got branded as La Casa or House. I just watched House 3, 4 and 5 this halloween which are "in the same series" but are just individual italian horror movies :D Ghosthouse, Witchery and Beyond Darkness respectively. Made a fun series to watch, as they also aren´t connected to the actual 4 part horror series also called House 1-4 :D Nor the japanese film Hausu...

Deleted member 9241 · Jan 11, 2022

David Addison said:
I hope this is the most ridiculous thing I read today. It's written at a fifth grade reading level, fer crissakes!

I think its simplicity weighs heavily in its favor. It is like pulp horror and I loved it.

Z-Beat · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
Hellraiser went back to Barker, I think.

Now that you mention Romero, there's also this:

lol

Is this the one in the mental hospital where the zombies were psychic from some weird experimental gas that was inside a thermos?

And yeah, looks like Clive Barker has creative control again. Apparently his Hellraiser reboot comes out this year

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

Noisepurge said:
Same as the Evil Dead films in italy got branded as La Casa or House. I just watched House 3, 4 and 5 this halloween which are "in the same series" but are just individual italian horror movies :D Ghosthouse, Witchery and Beyond Darkness respectively. Made a fun series to watch, as they also aren´t connected to the actual 4 part horror series also called House 1-4 :D Nor the japanese film Hausu...

I didn't know Evil Dead had its own unofficial "sequels" lol! I must see them. About the House sequels, I've read somewhere that the third one isn't connected to the previous two actually, like it was an attempt to start another franchise.

Sobriquet · Jan 11, 2022

I just noticed this the other day. I had thought there were only 3 plus the remake.

Noisepurge · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
I didn't know Evil Dead had it's own unofficial "sequels" lol! I must see them. About the House sequels, I've read somewhere that the third one isn't connected to the previous two actually, like it was an attempt to start another franchise.

yeah they weren´t that bad! Scream Factory even released them as dualpacks so it wasn´t too expensive to get them all.

Ghosthouse / Witchery Blu-ray

Ghosthouse / Witchery Blu-ray Release Date June 30, 2015. Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

Metamorphosis / Beyond Darkness Blu-ray

Metamorphosis / Beyond Darkness Blu-ray Release Date August 25, 2015. Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

And yeah, House 3 was just called The Horror Show originally and has nothing to do with the series, besides having a kinda haunted house in it :D Only House 1 and 4 are loosely linked together storywise. House 3 the best film of the series tho :D Got the Arrow box set with all 4 films in it.

House: The Collection Blu-ray (United Kingdom)

House: The Collection Blu-ray Release Date June 10, 2019. Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

BloodRayne · Jan 11, 2022

Noisepurge said:
yeah they weren´t that bad! Scream Factory even released them as dualpacks so it wasn´t too expensive to get them all.

Ghosthouse / Witchery Blu-ray

Ghosthouse / Witchery Blu-ray Release Date June 30, 2015. Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

Metamorphosis / Beyond Darkness Blu-ray

Metamorphosis / Beyond Darkness Blu-ray Release Date August 25, 2015. Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

And yeah, House 3 was just called The Horror Show originally and has nothing to do with the series, besides having a kinda haunted house in it :D Only House 1 and 4 are loosely linked together storywise. House 3 the best film of the series tho :D Got the Arrow box set with all 4 films in it.

House: The Collection Blu-ray (United Kingdom)

House: The Collection Blu-ray Release Date June 10, 2019. Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

Nice!

omg David Hasselhoff and Linda Blair in La Casa 4?? Now I definitely must see this lol

Noisepurge · Jan 11, 2022

BloodRayne said:
Nice!

omg David Hasselhoff and Linda Blair in La Casa 4?? Now I definitely must see this lol

i know right? :D but do temper your expectations, it´s unfortunately played quite straight faced even when they had all the ingredients to go crazy

And yeah, i have a a habit of watching full series of horror films around October, last year was a fun one and i´m already planning this years :D

Halloween 2021

The marathon this year had a couple themed weeks. Sharks, Houses and Giallos :D Phantasm being the only full series i hadn't seen before at all.

letterboxd.com

Why are there so many Amityville sequels??

SayTan

One Winged Slayer

Completely non-threatening

Deleted member 9241

Deleted member 9241

One Winged Slayer

Deleted member 9241

One Winged Slayer